Obesity Trends Map: from 1985-2010
The Obesity Trends Map: from 1985-2010 (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html) published by the U.S. Center for Disease Control illustrates trends in the obesity rates in the United States. It uses data from National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES) and shape layers with U.S. state boundaries and borders. This map is interested me because it shows growing rates of obesity among U.S. adults and children.
USDA Food Desert Locator
The Food Desert Locator Map published by the USDA (http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/fooddesert/fooddesert.html) uses census-tract level data to identify low-income neighborhoods that have low access grocery stores. I am interested in this map because it helps identify neighborhoods that can benefit from having access to healthy food and the many implications that healthy food access has on public health. The data needed to create this map includes, but is not limited to: U.S. Census-Tract level statistics in the form of data sets; various map layers such as the North American continent, Country borders and boundaries, U.S. state level borders and boundaries; and geographical attributes.
Fast Food Location Map
This map was created by Edmund Harris, a Ph.D. Geography student at Clark University, to map out all the McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, KFC, Jack in the Box, Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr, and In-N-Out locations in the United States (http://foodmapper.wordpress.com). My interest in this map is related to a curiosity to match the high concentration of fast food locations with known food deserts, and the possible correlation to obesity rates in the United States. To create this map the author needed Geocoded addresses of all the fast-food locations for the major companies that are mentioned. He also needed shape layers that included U.S. geographical boundaries and states borders and boundaries.
